Maui
So we just got back from our last trip of the year... Hawaii for the second time! (It's wedding season!) Airi managed to get some nice tan lines.
We were in Maui for my friends' wedding. Since we already spent a week in Bora Bora, we tried to save some cash by only spending 4 days in Maui. We stayed at the Sheraton. The nice thing is we got a free upgrade to suite. This is the view from the private entryway to the suites (top floor).
The rest of the Sheraton is to the right, the suites were built on top of the black rock. We were actually on the other side.
Here's a shot of our balcony. Nice view of the ocean, too.
One of the things we did was take a helicopter ride. Here we are waiting to get on the helicopter.
Here's Airi sitting next to the pilot. The helicopters have room for a pilot and 6 passengers. They put all of our weights into the computer, and the computer figures out the optimal weight distribution. We got lucky and sat up front which gave the best view. Next are a few shots from the helicopter.
Here we are after the helicopter ride. The ride was fun and we could even see a giant manta ray in the ocean although I didn't get a picture of it. I would say that if you decide to take a helicopter ride in Hawaii, I would say do it on The Big Island where you also get to see the active volcano and running lava.
So on the last day when we were supposed to leave, there was a big earthquake 6 miles off the coast of The Big Island (6.5 I believe). I think I was just waking up when I felt the rumble in our room and also an aftershock later. The quake didn't feel too bad, but all the power on Maui was out. This included the airport, so we didn't know if we would be flying out that day or the next. Luckily, power was restored after a couple of hours. However, Hawaiian Air must not have been prepared so they didn't have any information and we had to hang out at the airport for about 5 hours. Luckily we did make it home, although not until 2am in the morning and we had to work the next day (that would be today).
posted by Steve @ Monday, October 16, 2006
5 comments
5 Comments:
I was wondering if you guys on maui felt anything.
mick's grampy's house was hit pretty hard as it was very close to the epicenter. a windoe broke out, LOTS of stuff on the floor, and some of the house found it's way off the foundation blocks. Luckily, it'll all get repaired in plenty of time for us when we go for JB's wedding :)
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Steve - those pics from the heli are gorgeous! That must be the West side of the island?
How much was your flight delayed by?
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I believe our flight was delayed for over 2 hours. At first it looked like we'd leave almost on time as the plane had arrived, but because the computers were down they didn't have a flight plan. They said it may take up to 45 minutes to fax one over and in fact it was much longer. But because they didn't know when they would start boarding or how they were going to assign seats (the boarding passes were hand written and didn't include seats for most people), I had to hang around the gate. Speaking of the gate, they originally said it was gate 39 which was the last gate, but then they said because the computer was down at 39, go to gate 21B to get seat assignments, well, it's pretty far between 39 and 21. When I get there, they say that we'd be boarding at 21. So I had to run back to 39 to get Airi who had been waiting at 39. Which meant we would then be at the end of the line to get on board. I guess it could have been a lot worse, so it's just good to be back home.
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